Year: 2007

Weekly News We Care About Wrap Up – 2.16.07

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Virtua Fighter 5 sells well in Japan despite reports to the contrary
Despite my rants about how shitty game journalism is, I am often too lazy to be the change I want to see in the world (paraphrased Gandhi quote FTW!). Last week, a little short on stories, I decided to post something that was both very specific to my tastes and not really news. The second part should’ve been blatantly obvious since the story was on kotaku.com.

So now I would both like to apologize for the lapse in quality journalism and for the story being just plain wrong. I have brought shame to videolamer and to my family. If my parents hadn’t stopped speaking to me years ago because I am a horrible disappointment of a son, I am sure they would be ashamed.

Artsy enough to have his own clothing line, but not so artsy he is beaten to death in a dark alley.

Marc Ecko forms game studio
Vin Diesel is the only celebrity I know of who seems to actually be talented. →  Readius III and IV

Yay or Nay: Collector’s Editions

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In the last few years, many companies have begun to sell a collector’s edition for some of their big games. Microsoft’s Halo 2 had one, as does the more current Lost Planet from Capcom. Usually they contain a nice metal case, a DVD filled with exclusive content and maybe another miscellaneous item. All of this comes with a $10 price increase over the regular version. So if you buy a Collector’s Edition PS3 or 360 game, you will most likely spend $70 for it.

So what say you, videolamerians? Are you excited that companies are doing this, supplying even more content with their games for a small price, or do you only see companies bleeding their customers’ wallets with useless “behind the scenes” footage that was probably edited in an hour?

Personally, I couldn’t care less about a collector’s edition. I just don’t see the value in it. I’m sure that at some point down the road someone will want to buy it off me to fill their ginormous games collection, but for right now, those things are just an excuse to waste $10. →  Shadow of the Article

Review – Final Fantasy X

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It’s not some startling revelation to say that jRPGs are a hotly debated topic among many gamers, as they struggle to figure out the present and future of the genre. I have absolutely no clue what the developers behind FFX were trying to do, but I know the result of their work is a game that fully embraces what these games have become. It has been streamlined and simplified so as to provide players with something easy, relaxing, and colorful. It’s like an anime Disney attraction where you get to play a part.

Take the combat. It is a system where mages have enough MP to cast plenty of spells, and tank characters can one-hit-kill. Enemies are designed so that you can tell just by looking at them what characters you will need in order to end the battle in three steps. It even goes so far as to give you visual cues when delivering a killing blow. Status effects work, summons can be used for quick damage (or to absorb damage), and you can instantly swap party members. →  Read or die.

Our favorite game settings

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If a game has a good setting, you don’t forget it. You may even end up referring to it as if it were a real place – “I wonder what the weather’s like in Midgar this time of year…” However, setting hasn’t really been a prevalent factor in our games until the modern consoles, both due to a loosening of size constrictions and the advent of 3D graphics. Most NES and SNES games had little setting to speak of outside the instruction manual. But developers have been getting better at creating alternate realities, showing us worlds that we swear are real. With more than enough amazing settings in games today, videolamer decided to list some of our favorite examples.

This list does not factor in level design. That topic is easily complex enough to warrant its own list. This is a list of well-crafted universes, ones that are so perfectly developed that you wish you could travel to them, again and again. →  Reading. Reading never changes.

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Covert Wii Update: Everybody Votes Channel

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In a surprise announcement, Nintendo has released a new channel for the Wii, called the Everybody Votes Channel. It’s essentially a worldwide polling station with cute little questions aimed to bring the Wii community closer. The channel is immediately available in the Wii Ware section of the Shop Channel, and is free of charge.

This is seriously out of the blue. I don’t think anyone expected to see something like this. When I first heard about it, I thought Nintendo was finally going to let me voice my concerns over the Virtual Console service (damn those prices), but it’s not exactly like that.

The polls are nothing that important. Take the first one, for example: “What is a more romantic Valentine’s gift?” with choices of “Chocolates” or Roses.” Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it seems that Nintendo is starting to create a community with the Wii. There’s two other regional polls at the moment, with one worldwide one, so hop on and check it out. →  The gamers have only interpreted the games, in various ways. The point, however, is to change them.

Eve Update: Little fish in the Ocean

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Have you ever looked at the food chain in the ocean? Take an anchovy, for example. The anchovy actually isn’t at the bottom, that job belongs to plankton. Anchovies are eaten by things such as the spotted sea trout. The spotted sea trout is eaten by tarpons, which in turn are eaten by bull sharks. Why am I boring you with the details of the food chain?

It’s been about a month since I started playing Eve. Ambition, combined with some purchased in-game currency (it’s so cheap I can’t help myself), led me and my merry band to try to go to “lowsec” space–where PvP begins. Our interest wasn’t in PvP, but rather in mining the more precious materials found in lowsec space. Accordingly, we attempted to arm ourselves–encouraged by some GTC supplemented ISK, we thought our fancy ships and fancy equipment would allow us to play with the big boys.

In the past weeks, we’ve collectively died multiple ways. From NPCs, to not understanding game mechanics, to PCs on a warpath, to PCs who decided they didn’t appreciate my smack talk to someone I chased off for picking a fight with me in the first case: our losses have been catastrophic. →  Hot Shots Post 3

Color Me Tickled Pink

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It’s becoming readily apparent to me that I need games with a lot of color in them. I’ve been putting a lot of time into Hotel Dusk, and with the black and white nature of the sprites, as well as the browns and grays found in the actual hotel, it’s making it hard for me to willingly jump into the game.

Right now I have the choice of playing either Hotel Dusk or Lumines II, and I always seem to go to the PSP game. It’s sad to say, but the realistic color palette is what kills me about Hotel Dusk. It’s all stylistic and definitely awesome and unique, but I guess my ADD or whatever flairs up, and it takes awhile for me to enjoy myself with the title. Both are amazing games, mind you, but my mind robotically draws to the one with the wider color spectrum, and Lumines has that front covered. Trust me: a man on acid would love Lumines. →  Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Post

Bad Design 4

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It’s nobody’s favorite time again, time to be anal retentive about game design! This column is usually filled with great games that messed up in a few spots. Today’s entry is different because two of the three games are barely tolerable.

Hell hounds? More like heck hounds!

Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Lack of Interesting Conflict — Heroes 3 has the same problem War Craft 2 had. You either win a tremendous victory, or get your ass completely destroyed. There is very little middle ground in the game and even fewer turn arounds. While it may be just because I suck at the game, I never start a game losing and then slowly make a come from behind victory. I build a massive force and crush the enemy quickly, get devastated, or slowly lose more and more ground with each battle.

This lack of interesting conflict cuts through much of the enjoyment of building characters in the RPG fashion the game allows for. →  Lamers so loved the world that they gave their only article, so that everyone who believes in reading won’t perish but will have eternal lives.

Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest Impressions

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My girlfriend surprised me last night and bestowed upon me the greatest Valentine’s Day present ever given to a human being: the lost, but not forgotten, Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest for the GameCube.

Don’t know what Cubivore is? It’s no surprise, as it’s probably the rarest GameCube game ever made. If you can find it used, the game fetches for $30 at local game stores.

It was developed by Japanese developer Saru Brunei, and it was dead in the water before it was even released in 2002, mostly due to its extremely basic graphical presentation. It first started out as an N64 title, but was later released on the GC. Sadly, the graphics were never really spruced up for the new hardware.

The name says it all; everything in the game, from the land to enemies, are all made of cubes. Even the Sun is a cube, with a low-res red circle on it. It’s all very stylistic, but Crysis this is not. →  Read, you fools!

Weekly News We Care About Wrap Up – 2.9.07

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Jack Tretton wants to give you $1200
In the March issue of EGM, Sony’s Jack Tretton declared, “If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that’s been on shelves for more than five minutes, I’ll give you 1,200 bucks for it.” This interview has been reported on before, but the quote is too funny not to highlight.

To make matters worse for Tretton, EGM responds to his offer by explaining that they called 18 random retailers and half of them had PS3s sitting on shelves. Tretton replied with, “I am not sitting in the store to know when they got put on the shelves or if a salesperson is giving you accurate information, but if only nine of the 18 stores you contacted had supplies, that seems to be a clear indication that sales continue to be outstanding.”

So his position seems to be that those systems are selling within five minutes and EGM just got lucky and called at times when deliveries had arrived only a minute ago, or that the sales people EGM spoke to were lying. →  Secread of Evermore